Sheep Mountain 2006 Race Report
These lines are coming from Paxson Alaska, where we are renting a cabin, same as last winter. We moved here at the beginning of December. There was good snow in Whiteorse, but with most of the races being in Alaska anyhow, no matter what, I would have to do a lot of driving. With staying here for several weeks, we have more time for training and much shorter distances to each race. We traveled with 56 dogs in total, Rich left a few days earlier as he also had to go to the Iditarod Rookie meeting in Anchorage. Than Rudi Niggemeier and myself followed with the remaining dogs. Last year we lived rather improvised, so I spent some time this fall to set up a nice doglot here in Paxson.
Our Cabin also classifies more as a house, with separate bedrooms, electricity and running water. At least the water is running out of the tap, but not into the drains, as they are all froze up, so back to the good old bucket system. There is a laundry machine and a dryer, some luxury I have not had in 10 years. We are connected to the internet also, so life is grand. The living room even sports a TV and DVD player, but I think other than one night we have not managed to stay awake long enough to watch movies, too long are the days of running dogs and packing food drops.
The dogs were very happy to switch to the sleds once we got here. Although there is a lot of snow we unfortunately cannot use the Denali Highway much for training, as past mile 6 most of the snow blew away, exposing a several mile long stretch of bare pavement. A few days ago, after some new snow, Rudi came back raving about how much the conditions improved. So the next morning I hooked up 16 dogs and headed up the Denali. Unbeknown to us in the valley, the wind had blown hard up there, and before I even realized what was going on, I zoomed down the 9 Mile hill on bare pavement with 16 dogs having a blast, finally a nice hard packed “Trail“. Turning them around was a rather interesting adventure and I was glad to go back onto the Alyeska Pipeline trails which have 2 feet of hard packed snow. When I got back home at night, and saw Rudi patching up his Parka and Pants, I knew I was not the only one who fell in the trap.
So most of our training is done on the trail systems around Paxson, Meiers and Sourdough and conditions here a next to ideal. One of the greatest things is, that we can always stop for a quick burger at the Meiers Lake Roadhouse, where Gaylen and Robin are always up for a good story. Our runs were kept relatively short before the Sheep Mountain 150, usually staying under 5 hrs.
Rudi, Rich and me each took a team of 12 dogs to the Sheep Mountain. I planned to leave last minute before the race, but Rich called from the road, notifying me, that he forgot his drop chains. He sure could have borrowed them somewhere, but I opted to leave on short notice, knowing there was good musher camaraderie waiting in Sheep Mountain also. It is nice to talk dogs all night. Anjanette and Zack Steer from the Sheep Mountain Lodge, went all out to organize a great race for us mushers. I had starting number one, which is determined by the time of signup. I waited to midnight on signup day to fax in my entry, also knowing, that the parking order in Eureka has the number one parked closest to the water and lodge. The shorter I have to walk to eat a burger, the better it is, which makes it worth while to stay up late. Leaving as number one has disadvantages, you do not see your competition behind and do not know how fast they go. Once you see them it is usually too late. Leaving as number one has the advantage of having a great trail, not chewed up from teams ahead. This race I was going to experience a new disadvantage. For the first time ever, I left Tang, my main leader behind. With no other team being ahead of me, my new and young crew had no scent to chase. The first real turn, I missed and the dogs followed some snowmachine trail. This was the beginning of several tangles, trying to turn my team around, something I have not had for years in a race. The dogs ran great, but not necessary in the directions I wanted them to run. With Gerry Willomitzer only starting 2 minutes behind me, I was certain he would catch up right away, but he did not, so he must have had some issues also. In Paxson I trained on my new sit down sled, but opted to take my old Gatt long distance sled in this race, as there are many mountains and no time to sit. One of the golden rules of thumb is, do not change anything in a race. I got reminded of that quickly when I tried to step on my drag mat right after the start, which is much smaller on this sled, I stepped into nothing, lost my balance and got drug behind the sled.
This season I have consciously being training shorter and faster runs, but have to admit I already do not like the outcome. On the other hand if you never try something new, there is no way to learn. The dogs ran well, and had some “ zap “, but specially in the hills they did not have the stamina as my old team did. Eventually Gerry caught up to me and passed me on a little lake about 3 miles before the finish, where I had to take Skunk out of lead, as her desire to explore new trails grew by the minute. As the trail went all around the perimeter of the lake, you had a chance to see the teams coming up from behind. I was certain Hans Gatt was one of them, with him having starting number 5. But the sled which appeared had a German flag on it, Rudi’s trademark. My first thought was: Cool that Rudi is that fast. My second thought was: Oh God, I hope Rudi does not beat me with my own dogs. We ran into Eureka in a little under 4 hrs, Gerry 3:56 and myself 3:59 and I was happy with that outcome. Jessica Hendricks was even faster with 3:55 and Lance Mackey put us all into our place with getting there in 3:46. That is an amazing speed, and I ran much faster on this run, than I had done in any of the training. The dogs looked good, they all ate like alligators, something I like a lot about my team. With Gerry being parked right next to me, I saw his gang nibbling away on their food.
After a nice break, a few burgers later, we hit the trail again at 22.23. Round number 2. The team was highly motivated, screaming to go, but heck once again, going somewhere, but not on the trail. There is a little lake we have to cross, at least they were heading in the general direction, but for sure they did not make the connection that the trail markers have something to do with this game. Back on the trail is put Finn into lead and things got a bit more stable. I still had to watch like a hawk for any turns, making sure to give the proper command, or they would not make the turn. Tang and me, we were a kind of on autopilot for years, very rarely did I ever have to tell her much. Darn I wish I would have raced that dog in her younger days. This pace was definitely too quick for the 9 year old lady. About half way through this run the trail winds through a nice spruce forest with some tight corners, slightly going down hill. What a blast, zipping through the night like that, before finally spilling out to the little Nelchina River. I was pleased to see the whole team move strong and we reached the checkpoint in 3:56, wow 14 minutes faster than last year. But Gerry and Jessica once again made a few minutes on me, Lance once again smoking down the trail in 3:45. At least I was able to hang on to 4th place, as there was a strong group of mushers short behind me. Hans Gatt, John Little, Ed Hopkins, the Redington brothers and also Rudi was not far off. It is amazing that in a race of 150 miles, there is basically no room for error. One stop, one missed turn and you can easily loose a position or two. All dogs wolved down their meals, except Libby. She was a last minute change to my team, and not a good choice, being also older, so I decided to drop here right away. The weather was somewhat fresh with ice fog settling in over the parking area.
This time I reserved a Cabin here in Eureka and had a good rest of a couple of hours before heading back out on the trail for round number 3, of course still having hopes to catch Gerry or Jessica. But reaching the little lake we crossed on the way in , I could time that both made another minute on me, and decided to abandon the chase and rather take it easy on the way home. The trail is a steady up and down, and while dawn slowly arrived I glanced back just to see a headlight not too far behind me. So much for taking it easy. Instead of riding the runners on up hills, I started running behind the sled once again, no time to slack with someone like Hans breathing down behind. Cresting Belanger Pass, we got rewarded with an amazing view before having even more fun on the long downhill into the valley. Going up the last hill I could see Hans about 10 minutes behind, with only 8 miles to I was certain he would not catch me and I took it easy once again, making sure to not run the team too fast on the last down hill.
I finished 4th , about 30 minutes faster than last year, but 2 places down. So obviously not only my team is faster this year. Over all I am happy with the result. I sure miss Tang in the team, but all the new guys are lacking is some confidence and experience. That sure will come this winter. Rudi finished a great 9th and Rich came in 28th with the Puppy Team.
Here you can find all results.
And here a nice race report: http://www.cabelasiditarod.com/coverage_2007/cov07_dec19_01.html
These were the Sheep Moutain Teams:
Sebastian: Rat, Skunk, Finn, Roadstreak, Gas, Diesel, Inuk, Austin, Eagle, Par, Libby, Nemo
Rudi: Batman, Spike, Salty, Suhmo, George, Herring, Onyx, Chester, Angel, Stevie, Denali, Storm
Rich: Popcorn, Maggot, Marmot, Battier, Bananas, Susie, Emerie, Kiana, Ricky, Buckley, Orion, Tape.
After a short “ vacation “ in Homer and a long drive back to Paxson, about 10 hrs in a snow storm, we continued training. We skipped Christmas and trained dogs instead, upping the ante to 8 and 9hr runs, as that is what the dogs will experience in the Knik 200, which will start on January the 6th. Here you can follow the race progress: www.knik200.com.
Sorry that my newsletters are a bit less frequent than last year, but Andy is not here to constantly nag me to write. He does his best sending me email reminders. I hope that I will manage at least a few more updates before the Quest. Reflecting back on 2006, it was a fun year, with running the Quest and Iditarod again. The summer went by mostly filled with work and once fall time arrived a was lucky to get some great help again. As a musher I am often in the limelight of things, but clearly without all the helping hands (and heads) behind the scene, this lifestyle would not be possible. Laird just came inside to warm up his hands, after giving each of the dogs a deworming pill. There is always a lot of little things which need attention. Having good handlers is for sure part of a mushers success. Standing behind a nice running team of dogs, the moon shining I often realize how fortunate I am to live the mushing lifestyle.
There is good snow in Whitehorse and the tours run well at Sky High and Blue Kennels. Trevor, Ian, Felix, Jocelyne, Maren are all busy guiding at the Ranch, as well as Hauke and Martha at the Alaska Highway location. February is getting pretty booked up with only a few spaces left, but if some of you still feel a last minute urge to get your mushing fix, there is still space on the March departures.
I wish you all the best for 2007, and hope all your dreams and plans will materialize. Tang and Spook also send their greetings, they each occupy one of the couches in the living room.
Happy trails Sebastian and Gang
Sab
